No pity party for me ...

Mike Parry sent a quote on Face Book that I liked:  It came from C. S. Lewis.  "Pity was meant to be a spur that drives joy to help misery.  But it can be used the other way around.  It can be used as a kind of blackmailing.  Those who choose misery can hold joy up to ransom, by pity."   C. S. Lewis knew whereof he spoke.  He chose to rise above the pain and grab on to the bits of joy that were still out there for him.

I choose to do the same.   January 22 is the anniversary of the day my brother, Jim, died.  I can dwell on its sadness or its joy.  It's a choice we face on our least significant day.  I watch people in my life struggle with finding a place, as they grow into the unfamiliar, and they choose to become bitter, isolated, alone and encased in self-pity.  They want life as it used to be when they were wealthy, married, successful and people doted on them.  And their health was perfect! And who wouldn't!  But life moves on and transitions and so do we or we get left behind to mope and pine for what used to be.   I don't want to be in that category.   I have visited that world at times but I choose not to take up residence there.  Oliver Wilson said, "What poison is to food, self-pity is to life!"

So, keep your pity-party away from me! Shove it some other way!  Pitch it to someone who can find nothing better to do.  People who fight self-pity accept the invitations that come their way.  I may whine and moan at times but let that phone ring with an invitation to go out and eat, and I am putting on lipstick and grabbing my credit card!  It's my choice and I'm making it!

C. S. Lewis